Digital Technology

0 3 IOT EXPLOSION
The internet of things is only getting started. Yes, we’ve seen wi-fi kettles and cars which report back to the manufacturer when they crash. But most companies haven’t begun to contemplate the possibilities. Latest breakthroughs? The Britta water filter jug now orders replacement filters from Amazon automatically. Salted Ventures, a spin-out from Samsung, has created smart shoes, which report on pressure, balance and weight shift for athletes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working on an implantable birth control chip, which can be switched on or off remotely. The digital world is going to be transformed by the data flowing from IoT sensors.
04 EVERYDAY AI
A rtificial intelligence used to be available only to chief information officers working at Fortune 500 companies. Yet now even small firms can turn to cyber intelligence when they need. Super-computing power is available on demand. IBM Watson leads the field. It shot to fame winning the TV show Jeopardy!Today it powers the mundane, such as Mattel’s Hello Barbie doll, to more profound things, such as development of Standard Bank’s customer relationship management. Rival offerings such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Vertica and Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning will bring AI to all enterprises.
05 BLOCKCHAIN
Y ou’ve heard of bitcoin. Well, the technology behind it is the blockchain and it’s suddenly overtaking bitcoin for hype. In a nutshell, the blockchain is a public record of transactions, which anyone can possess a copy of. All versions of the ledger are updated simultaneously. Today there are more than 220 blockchain startups. The Bank of England held a contest last year to find the best application. The winner tracks blood in the NHS. IBM and Goldman Sachs are pouring money into the technology. And don’t worry if you are a bit baffled – even the developers aren’t totally sure where blockchain will end up.


06 NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATION
W hen will computers learn to talk? The answer is that they pretty much do. The Met Office weather reports online have trialled natural language engine developed by AIM-listed Arria. Reuters uses a computer to turn financial data into prose. Hospitals are using the tech to write patient reports. Mechanical devices such as wind turbines are writing status reports for engineers in plain English. On the flip side, language engines are getting better at understanding human communication too. Companies such as Spotter offer “sentiment analysis” across social media, so brands can track what consumers are saying about them.